Sunday, November 11, 2012

My Review of Chasing Mavericks

(I know I sound really formal and everything here, but that's what I do when I review movies. Bear with me here, people!)

Last week, I went to see Chasing Mavericks, a new movie about a boy named Jay who wants to surf this really big waves called mavericks. It is based on a true story.

There are lots of great things that I could say about this movie. It was suspenseful at times, but it wasn't really scary until the very end. I really liked the casting (Especially the guy who played Sandy, Jay's mentor.) One thing that I really liked about the movie, not as a watcher but as a movie editor (iMovie totally counts), I thought this one transition in the beginning was really neat. Younger Jay is surfing a wave, and then you see the wave and the camera goes up again and Kazam! Now he's fifteen! I thought that was pretty cool and definitely makes for smooth viewing. Even though some parts are intense, this whole movie has kind of a laid-back, California vibe to it.

However, there are also some really sad parts in it [SPOILER ALERT!!!!!] involving Sandy's wife and Jay himself. [SPOILER OVER!!!!] This movie might really upset some people, so if you cry over movies a lot, I'm sorry, but Chasing Mavericks is probably not for you. But I really don't want to harp on the bad parts, so let's just say this: Chasing Mavericks is an awesome movie that I would definitely recommend, but maybe not for everyone. Probably fourth grade and up. It does say that the movie is recommended for kids ages 12 and up, but we all know people aren't going to listen to that all the time. I would really say that its up to the kid's parents to decide if they're ready to see it, because everyone's different and you really can't have a recommended age, because some 7 year olds that I know would love this movie, and some 12 year olds that I don't actually know but they have to be out there somewhere would have nightmares for weeks after seeing it. Oh no, the negative part of the post ended up being bigger then the positive part. Oh well.

Chasing Mavericks has received mostly negative ratings. When I heard this, I was kinda surprised, because I thought it was a pretty good movie, and so did my mom. Despite the ratings, I would give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. It's definitely worth seeing!

If you've seen this movie or are thinking about watching it, please leave a comment! As always, thanks for reading!